3. Level of creativity

The same old objection management techniques might not always bring the deal to a close. Sometimes the same objection requires a completely new maneuver. How good is your sales rep at coming up with new stuff on the fly?

Here’s what to bear in mind:

Was your sales rep creative during the sales call?

Did your rep come up with new ways of disarming a reluctant prospect?

Did your rep have a new way of working around a specific obstacle?

You’re in sales, but per definition, you’re a consultant. All of these things will be a testament to how good of a consultant your reps are.

4. Time management

Time management is a challenging discipline, not just for salespeople, but for everyone. Making the most of the time comes down to the goal you’ve set for the call.

Here’s what to ask:

What was accomplished during this call in relation to its duration?

Could it have been accomplished in less time? How?

How well did the rep respect their own time as well as their prospect’s time?

Don’t overwhelm your sales reps with feedback

In the past, I’ve had a bad habit of overwhelming sales reps with feedback, leaving them with no clear points of improvement.This is demoralizing and takes away their energy and passion. It also doesn’t provide your reps with a clear path toward improvement. How are they going to fix 40 things at once? They can’t.

Focus on one area that needs improvement

As a sales manager, you need to have the discipline to focus on one thing—the most important thing that you think will have the biggest impact.

You can look critically at every single thing your reps do and add it to your internal data, but give your reps only one thing they need to work on.

Learn as a team

A question you need to ask yourself as the sales manager is, “What are the learnings from this call that go beyond the individual sales rep?” Things the entire team can learn and benefit from, but also things you can learn as the sales manager.

Perhaps you’ve seen multiple people on the team make the same mistake. That might mean that you weren’t as effective in your coaching as you thought you were.When you’re reviewing a call, take it one step further. What are the opportunities for growth and learning? Is there something your entire sales team can learn? Perhaps there’s even something the whole business can learn? Always look at the bigger picture.

Download your free call review checklist

Schedule your next call review with one of your senior reps today and use the checklist we’ve created for you to help boost their performance and spot opportunities for growth.

Sales mindset: How to recover from a bad sales call?Next time you have a shitty sales call, don’t do the easy thing and use it as a reason to bring the entire team down. Instead, do the hard thing and turn it into an opportunity to become a better (sales) person. Here's how to do it.